Triple Eight will take over the Holden Racing Team moniker next season as part of a new three-year commitment from the manufacturer to the Supercars Championship.

Holden has revealed the landmark news this afternoon, confirming that two of Triple Eight’s cars will be entered under the Red Bull Holden Racing Team banner from 2017.

It has also announced that Triple Eight will develop a Supercars version of the next generation Commodore to debut in 2018.

The move is a major blow to Walkinshaw Racing, which has operated as the factory team under the Holden-owned HRT brand since 1990.

Holden’s decision ends months of internal debate and public speculation over its future in Australian motorsport as it transitions away from local manufacturing next year.

While details of the new Opel Insignia-based Commodore are yet to be confirmed, it is expected that the race car will be fielded with a V6 turbo engine.

Non-V8 powerplants will be welcomed into the category from next season under its Gen2 rule platform.

With Nissan’s future still hanging in the balance, Holden is the first manufacturer to commit to the category beyond this year.

“I’m especially excited to announce that the next generation Commodore will be racing in Supercars in 2018 and beyond,” said Holden chairman and managing director Mark Bernhard.

“Triple Eight will develop, build, race and I’m sure win with the next generation Commodore Supercar from 2018.

“It’s a great move for Holden that reinforces with our fans and our customers our commitment to motorsport and especially our long term future in this country.

“Motorsport has played a significant role in Holden’s heritage and we’re very proud to be continuing on that tradition but in a new and exciting way.”

Acknowledging that its future in the category had been uncertain while analysis took place on its benefits, Bernhard added that racing will be a key platform for introducing the imported Commodore to Australia.

“There’s a debate in all of our sponsorship agreements and that’s part of the role of the marketing team to evaluate all sponsorships, whether it’s motorsport, the Collingwood football club or NRL,” he said.

“We see motorsport as a great opportunity for us to both honour the heritage that we have and the fans in the business, but also around the performance and technology around the next generation Commodore.

“We think this is a great way to demonstrate this to fans and customers.”

Holden’s decision to continue with a factory Supercars presence has been hailed by CEO James Warburton as a sign of the category’s strength.

“We are delighted with Holden’s announcement today that it has committed to the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship for at least the next three years,” said Warburton.

“This decision reinforces the underlying strength of Supercars and its position in Australian sport."'

As a current HRT fan I'm shattered for the current Walkinshaw team but their results have not been good enough for several years now, so to a degree they have been the masters of their own demise. They have been struggling to find any sort of direction now for 3-4 years despite the calibre of drivers, staff & budget. I feel there is something fundamentally wrong for the cars to have been basically un-driveable with two great drivers. Even though this decision hurts, I think most of us have probably seen it coming.

I'm not so much a Walkinshaw fan per say but supported the Kellys, Mark Skaife & Garth Tander from the moment I started watching. I don't like Courtney but have supported him as a HRT fan. Personally, I don't like Triple Eight & I can't see myself supporting them as HRT next year. I'm a Holden fan but will support GT wherever he ends up & will support Walkinshaw, BJR, etc. I can only speak for myself but I reckon there will be plenty of HRT/Holden fans who will not like this. I hope Walkinshaw see this as an opportunity to resurrect the HSV Dealer Team & keep most of these fans but I'm not going to hold my breath on Holden allowing that.

The thing that really upsets me in all this is the decision that Triple Eight will be the sole builder for Holden going forward. Whilst this makes sense economically it will ruin part of the competitive spirit between the teams. So now if Walkinshaw, BJR & Erebus want to continue in Holden beyond 2017 they MUST purchase their cars from Roland Dane & pay him whilst the design & fabrication guys who are already at those teams are made redundant. That is absolutely rubbish! I honesty can’t see teams like BJR will be happy with this arrangement.

Triple Eight’s deal to become Holden’s sole factory team has seen it awarded exclusive rights to build the next generation Commodore Supercars.

As announced today, the Roland Dane owned squad will develop the new Commodore package next year before its race debut in 2018.

While the current field also includes Walkinshaw Racing and Brad Jones Racing built Commodores, Holden is set to introduce a centralised process for the new machinery.

A similar model had long been touted for the yet-to-be-confirmed engine package, which is expected to see the manufacturer move to V6 turbo power.

Confirming Triple Eight’s exclusive arrangement, Holden sponsorship manager Simon McNamara stressed that the manufacturer remains keen to see a large number of Commodores in the field.

Triple Eight will however be the only squad to receive direct financial backing, with Walkinshaw demoted to a technical and marketing support package currently offered to the remaining teams.

“In principal any team will be able to run a Holden that will be prepared and manufactured by Triple Eight,” explained McNamara.

“So if you are a Brad Jones, a Lucas Dumbrell or a Walkinshaw or anybody else, a Kelly for that matter, if they want to race a Holden they can.

“They just ring Roland and send him a cheque.”

The move strengthens Triple Eight’s already formidable position which sees it supply an array of cars, components and intellectual property to a large portion of the field.

In addition to his own three entries, those currently running Triple Eight built chassis are Tekno Autosports, Team 18 and Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport.

Together they account for seven of the 14 Holdens in the current 26 car field.

“It is up to us to put a competitive package together from a racing point of view and a price point of view to enable as many people who would like to race a Holden Commodore to be able to do so,” Dane told Speedcafe.com.

“The car is very much under wraps at the moment and Holden will no doubt make everyone aware down the road.

“I’m very confident that we will do a good job with it (developing the 2018 car) and it will entail plenty of work, but we are used to it.”

Holden’s decision to move its Holden Racing Team brand to Triple Eight from next year is another landmark moment in the team’s history.

After passing up an opportunity to buy the Holden Racing Team, Triple Eight entered the category in 2003 through a takeover of Ford squad Briggs Motorsport.

Dane then engineered a switch to Holden for 2010 after Ford’s shock decision to withdraw its support a year earlier.

“Holden have been fully behind us for seven years so it is just an extension and a reinforcement of that relationship,” added Dane of the latest development.

“At the moment we are just going to concentrate on the balance of this year and do our job as Red Bull Racing Australia and then look at the implications of running as Red Bull Holden Racing Team next year.

“It will be very much business as usual next year but hopefully doing a great job for not only our existing fanbase, but for the whole Holden fanbase going forward.

“It is important for us to embrace all the Holden fans as we go into 2017.”

Dane has confirmed the team will continue its three-car format for next year, while Craig Lowndes’ Team Vortex entry will run under its existing moniker.

Meanwhile, the outfit’s current arrangement with title sponsor Red Bull will continue into next year with an option to extend the deal into 2018.

camaroguy wrote:i kinda see why they choose 888 to be HRT but i do not like they will be the only supplier of holden stuff come 2018. the series needs to stop that.

I agree camaroguy, it really was a no-brainer for Holden to choose 888 over Walkinshaw as the current HRT have not produced the results expected for a number of years & from that point of view it was the right decision to make.

Personally, I feel like Holden should have retired the Holden Racing Team name in the same sort of vein the Holden Dealer Team was ended in 1989. I know Holden own the rights & HRT started off being run by Larry Perkins but I feel moving the name to a rival team is somewhat emotionally confusing for the fans. I wish Holden could have made the decision to deflect the funds to 888 but come up with a new name for the factory squad to keep the entities of the 2 teams seperate.

As I said yesterday, I would love Walkinshaw to bring back the HSV Dealer Team to retain the same sort of support they had as HRT & continue the feel of a factory team. In fact if you look at the results, the HSVDT was been more successful in terms of championship standings then HRT has been.